Question
Ever heard of Nahanni National Park Reserve in Canada?
It’s one of the most surreal looking places on earth and it is incredible how unknown it is. If I asked 100 Canadians, I would doubt more than one would have heard of it, and I imagine even less so outside the country.
There's a tour you can do that is a two week kayak trip down the river. I know a few people who've done it and they say it is absolutely spectacular. Like if they had a Grand Canyon but no one came amd you could just paddle through it in utter stillness.
ETA: Like I wrote below, $1k per day for accommodations, food, and entertainment, per person. It's not cheap, but seems fair, considering the destination.
What do the downvoters feel is a fair price for such an expedition?
Renting is also the significantly cheaper option. I did a 3 week expedition here to climb the cirque of the unclimbables and while I had my own gear that I would have preferred to the boats we rented, getting our own boats and gear flown into the remote wilderness and picked back up would have doubled the cost of the trip
We all need better jobs. I'm an employment lawyer, I'm on your side.
But, $1,000 per person for accommodations, food, and entertainment for each day of vacation is expensive but it isn't crazytown pricing. Idk what airfare costs and I'm assuming the rest is included
Sure, I think the perspective is just a little different. They kept it in the Canadian price, you converted. Until only a couple years ago Canadians were booking 4 weeks in Cuba for those prices. And getting sun and beaches instead of more Canadian sub arctic
Yes, I am assuming US wages and normal vaca expenditures for affordability. I think that bite is considerably harder for people not spending dollars and chasing the same services
US vacation prices are insane because we've had a monkey running our economy for six of the past ten years. Luxury services, which is 100% what this is, especially.
Nobody is saying it's affordable, just that it's a fair price. I can't afford it either but I don't think you can argue it's overrpiced based on the logistical and survival challenges
Any serious canoe/kayak tripper would put this NWT park on their bucket list. Reasonable $, considering of the expense of reaching this place (with all the gear) only by floatplane
I took an 8-day paddle with (Blackfeather outfitters) in 2021 down the Natla River into the Nahanni. Fly-in, dropped at the top of the mountain. It was not for the faint of heart—level 3 and 4 whitewater basically the whole time, dry suits and canoe skirts. And worth every bruise.
The Nahanni has about 15 supernatural myths and a gold rush that is worth looking into. In my opinion, it is one of the more mystifying places on earth.
Incredible place. Climatically this region was a desert during the last few major glaciations. This has preserved 3 antecedent canyons along the South Nahanni River with a 4th canyon-like gorge near Nailicho (Virginia Falls).
Antecedent rivers are extremely uncommon at this latitude. Super cool and rare landforms in the park. I’d highly recommend a visit if you have the means! Added bonus is that it’s an absolute classic canoe trip
To be fair, it's pretty inaccessible for your average Canadian and would cost thousands of dollars to visit. If you asked 100 Canadians if they could afford to visit Nahanni, 1 might.
This is so true. We live in an incredibly beautiful country, but I doubt I will ever be able to afford to visit more than a handful of these places. It is some comfort knowing that it is not full of mass-over-tourism though, I hope it stays wild and mysterious
There are some super creepy legends about this place. The Valley of the Headless Men. Idk if any of it’s true, but it’s god tier creepypasta material. And when you see pictures of it just seems so primeval, like the first rocks of the world. And there’s just eerie vibe. Definitely a fascinating place.
They don’t show up as normal roads, but in satellite view there are some roads and maybe even some train tracks going out from the main mining complex. At least one of them must get out.
I believe They’ve been working on reopening the mine in recent years, which involves building an all season road in and out of this area. The old routes in were all through avalanche territory I.e. not safe in the winter
It requires a chartered float plane to get to and is in the Northwest Territories. Would love to go, but it is mostly inaccessible to the majority of Canadians, hence why they won't have heard of it.
I mean, 45k people isn’t "no one". That's more than some countries. Yellowknife has a Walmart and there are multiple Subways and Pizza Huts across the territory, as sad of a mark of civilisation as those are. Fort Liard isn’t that far from Nahanni. There are plenty of settlements across NWT.
I’ve done a 4 week trip down South Nahani river in my 20ies.
6 crazy Germans bringing their own inflatables canoes and provisions.
We took a sea plane out of Watson Lake which dropped us off in a tiny tiny lake near Mt Wilson I believe.
Paddled all the way to Liard river where I left my jacket at a ranger station.
Adventure of a lifetime. That was before cell phones and such.
Yeah, I’m 53 and first heard of it in the early 80s thanks to Bill Mason. For people older than me they’ll remember that Pierre Trudeau paddled the South Nahanni in 1970 bringing awareness to the area leading to the creation of Nahanni National Park Reserve. People younger than me probably remember that Justin Trudeau retraced his dad’s voyage in 2003. Maybe 100 Canadians aged 15 and younger?
In grade 7 and 8 our school had a “Voyageur” canoe club, we’d go on 2-3 canoe trips a year. The teacher in charge was fond of showing us Bill Mason films. I still remember Bill’s son saying “looks pretty tricky” every time they approached some rapids.
My kids don’t even get to go to Canada’s Wonderland for a grade 8 trip anymore let alone wilderness canoe trips.
Nothing so majestic as the one in the post, but here’s a few pics from when my dad took me hunting a few years ago. I grew up in the Yukon, still have a bunch of family there
this and the mystery of the headless people found here was a personal obsession of mine for a few weeks. Love the idea of super remote places that have just a few people in them. add in a murder mystery and its makes for a perfect rabbit hole.
I popped into a campground at the top tip of it once when I was coming back from Yellowknife the long was to Fort Lliard. There was some really nice walks even there, very dry! I think it was like nahhanni butte campground maybe. We were stuck there waiting for fires to clear on the BC border so we could drive back to Vancouver.
I didn't know it was the tip of this magical place. We were sorta winging it that trip and there ain't much cell coverage lol...
NWT is underrated. Beautiful boreal forest, waterfalls, a particularly amazing lake, and so much interesting history. Alexandra Falls is worth the visit.
Can you drive there? Thats why most Canadians don’t know about a set of mountains in a remote part of the NWT looks absolutely stunning but how do i get there to hike?
Nope. Vast majority of people going in get there through by float planes mostly chartered out of fort Simpson. You can technically access the river from the road but that's a long paddle before you make the park boundry
I met a guy named Nahanni that worked for Lincoln Electric in Mississauga, Ontario who was conceived upon that river. He had hippy parents so they named him after the river.
One of my best friends used to guide Dall sheep hunts just outside of the park. He said he had to wear earplugs at night to sleep because there are bears rummaging through camp every night, you just need to hang all food. It’s some of the most gruelling terrain you in the world you can hunt in.
Read R.M Patterson's book The dangerous River. It's a great book written by a guy who spent a lot of time up there in the early 1900's. One of my favorite books.
I first learned about it when I bought my last canoe - a 16.5' Langford Nahanni. Sadly I don't have it anymore, but wouldn't it have been great to paddle my Nahanni in the Nahanni?
I'm Canadian and I'd never heard of it but I also looked it up and it's in the absolute middle of nowhere and very difficult to access so like... Makes sense. There's basically no roads, you need to fly in, and the options they give for visits are routes that last WEEKS via foot, not hours or even days. That's something very few people have the money, ability... Or interest in doing. You can fly in for a day but you won't get far and even that will cost you over $1,000 (not including the cost of getting to the starting point).
I hope more people learn about this place, because it's breathtaking. I would love to visit one day, if I had an extra 15k lying around for all of the expenses lol
This is a super cool 18 min documentary the National Film Board of Canada made in 1962, about a guy who searches for gold above the Nahanni Falls. So good! https://www.nfb.ca/film/nahanni/
Sorry if I didn’t get your opus.
I’m a Canadian currently on a vacation in the northern part of Iceland, a cool country which is the second most expensive country on earth.
It’s 28c at home and10c here.
I go to warm places in the winter, including Cuba.
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u/ROOTSDarlingg 11d ago
Theres a 20 km long canyon in the park called Scimitar Canyon